Various powered pitching machines are known which are used for baseball batting practice and are intended primarily for use by professional or well financed college baseball teams. Such devices are typically relatively complex in construction, require an electrical or other power source, are quite costly and seldom available for use by amateurs or casual players.
The other end of the pitching machine spectrum is the batting tee. Baseball batting tees are widely used by professionals and amateurs alike, and they can be quite useful in various types of batting drills. Such batting tees, however, lack the eye-hand coordination or training which results from trying to hit a moving baseball.
An intermediate form of batting practice or pitching machine device is shown in my U.S. Pat. No. 3,767,198. This patent discloses the use of a baseball which is mounted to a long tether that: includes an elastic link or length of cord which can be used to propel or "pitch" the baseball across the plate to a batter. The tether also absorbs energy and limits the flight of the ball when it is hit.
The form of batting practice device or pitching assembly shown in my U.S. Pat. No. 3,767,198 is particularly well suited for use by amateur players in that it is relatively inexpensive, it is easy to set up, and amateur players can develop considerable batting skills using the device. Such batting practice devices, however, do have certain disadvantages. First, there are potential safety hazards, particularly when the ball is being pitched. The tether is anchored, usually by a ground stake, which can become dislodged or loosened as the elastic section of the tether is being stretched to generate the ball propelling force. This stretching action is a relatively slow elongation of the elastic cord, but if the ground stake should pull out of the ground while the pitcher is stretching the elastic cord, the ground stake becomes a dangerous projectile which will be propelled toward the pitcher. Since anchor or ground stakes usually are metallic and have a pointed end, the stake can become a formidable missile and substantial safety hazard.
The possibility of dislodging the ground stake upon batting of the baseball is less, and the danger to the pitcher is also much less. Nevertheless, there is always the prospect that the batted ball will also pull the anchor stake out of the ground, with the result that the pitcher can be hit by a highspeed, hard baseball and/or stake.
Another disadvantage of the tether pitching assembly of my U.S. Pat. No. 3,767,198 is that amateur players have some difficulty in reproducibly projecting or propelling the ball over the plate in or about the strike zone of the batter. While the general technique of propelling or pitching the baseball using the tethered ball apparatus of U.S. Pat. No. 3,767,198 is easily learned, it is somewhat more difficult to reproducibly pitch the ball in the strike zone using the apparatus. If the ball is repeatedly propelled by the apparatus outside the strike zone, the batter may develop bad batting habits and may swing at too many pitches that are outside the strike zone just to try to practice making contact with the moving ball.
One of the reasons that it is somewhat difficult to reproducibly propel the ball over the plate in the strike zone using my prior tethered baseball apparatus is that the elastic section was sufficiently long that the pitcher must step away from the batter during tensioning. Thus a step away from the batter was normally required in order to stretch the elastic section sufficiently to propel the baseball across the plate at about a normal pitching speed. Such stepping by the pitcher during the tensioning of the tether seldom is uniform, and tends to combine with other non-uniform arm and torso motions to induce variation into propulsion of the ball. The result is that some of the pitches are over the plate in the strike zone, but many are not.
An additional safety hazard which is present in the tethered ball pitching apparatus of my U.S. Pat. No. 3,767,198 is that a hard, regulation baseball has been used which is pitched by the device at speeds over 80 miles per hour. If the ball hits the batter, therefore, it can cause substantial injuries.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,802,409 discloses another type of baseball pitching or throwing device. The device incorporates the principle of slingshot projection, and it contains a frame member to which an elastic strap is connected. The baseball is positioned at the center of the strap, which is pulled and then released to project the ball. The ball is connected at one end to a cord secured to the frame of the slingshot assembly. This approach, however, requires a relatively bulky frame, which increases the cost and reduces the portability of the apparatus as compared, for example, to the pitching apparatus of my U.S. Pat. No. 3,767,198.
The tethering of balls also broadly is known in connection with both baseball and golf practice devices. Usually these balls are mounted to a tether which is designed to absorb energy imparted to the ball when the ball is hit by a baseball bat or a golf club. The tether is not used to propel or pitch the ball. Examples of such devices are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,326,976, 3,425,700 and 3,874,662. Similarly, U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,326,976, 3,297,321 and 4,660,835 disclose the use of balls which are tethered and anchored by ground assemblies which are designed to absorb energy once the ball is hit. Other examples of energy absorbing ground stakes are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,122,369, 3,494,621 and 3,521,887. In all of these devices, however, the ball is always moving away from the baseball player or golfer when the ground stake assembly is stressed or begins to absorb energy from the moving ball. Since the ball is moving away from the player, there is not a significant safety hazard if one or more of the stakes should pull from the ground and be propelled in the direction of the ball. Thus, these anchor assemblies are not designed for, nor do they function as, safety devices, but instead are merely energy absorbing systems to limit the flight of the ball away from the player who imparts motion to the ball.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a baseball batting practice device of the type including an anchored, tethered ball which may be used to simulate pitching and has substantially improved safety.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a baseball batting practice device which is inexpensive and which can be used by amateur players, as well as professional players.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a baseball pitching device which is constructed so that it is easier to reproducibly pitch the ball across the plate in the strike zone.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a baseball pitching assembly of the type that applies a force to a primary anchor stake in a direction toward the user and which has an auxiliary anchor that decelerates the primary anchor in the event that the primary anchor is dislodged from its anchoring position.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a batting practice device which enables the pitcher to pitch a safety baseball toward a batter at high speed without stepping away from the batter, thereby producing a more accurate, reproducible and safe pitch.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a batting practice device which utilizes a ball that is constructed so as to substantially reduce the risk of injury to players and physical damage to property, has performance characteristics closely simulating those of a baseball or softball, and is very durable.
The batting practice device of the present invention has other features and objects of advantage which will become apparent from and are set forth in more detail in the accompanying drawings and following description of the Best Mode of Carrying Out The Invention